


rose-coloured boy

by venusbot



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Aged Up, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Cooking, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, just stupid boys being stupid and in love, there is no plot. only gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:33:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23344027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/venusbot/pseuds/venusbot
Summary: At the time, it had seemed like the perfect idea.It’ll be a surprise,Ren had thought, browsing through the aisles of the grocery store in search of the perfect ingredients.He’ll be left speechless with shock,he’d thought, standing in wait at the line for the cashier.I’m literally the best boyfriend ever,he’d thought, rubbing his hands together and getting ready to create the culinary masterpiece of the century.Now, standing in front of Goro while the stench of smoke surrounded them both like a particularly persevering draft of wind, Ren thought that maybe his idea had not been as perfect as he thought it was.Ren tries to be a good boyfriend. He succeeds, but not exactly how he'd planned to.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 18
Kudos: 197





	rose-coloured boy

**Author's Note:**

> (windows startup noises) my akeshu fic debut.. hello lovely people please be nice to me 
> 
> this is very silly and short and self indulgent!! i like these boys very much and i was itching to write them being domestic.. no metaverse in this au so this is what i imagine their lives would have been like if their childhoods didn't, y'know, suck. also thank you to lise for listening to me talk about them and helping out with the idea <3 
> 
> title is from the paramore song (it was written solely for akechi if i do say so myself). also listen to lover by taylor swift while reading if you want to experience true pain

At the time, it had seemed like the perfect idea. 

_It’ll be a surprise,_ Ren had thought, browsing through the aisles of the grocery store in search of the perfect ingredients. _He’ll be left speechless with shock,_ he’d thought, standing in wait at the line for the cashier. _I’m literally the best boyfriend ever,_ he’d thought, rubbing his hands together and getting ready to create the culinary masterpiece of the century.

Now, standing in front of Goro while the stench of smoke surrounded them both like a particularly persevering draft of wind, Ren thought that maybe his idea had not been as perfect as he thought it was. 

“Ren,” Goro said at last, after he’d finished silently surveying the current state of the house. There was a look in his eyes that Ren found mildly distressing and attractive at the same time. 

“Yes, honey?” Nothing like a nickname to calm the waters. 

Goro closed his eyes. “What was the one thing I told you not to do?”

Ren remembered his words from that morning pretty clearly, actually. He’d had the perfect comeback for it at the time, but right now, his throat was feeling a little dry. “Set anything on fire.”

“And what did you do?”

“Made you dinner.”

Goro cracked an eye open. Ren didn’t budge. Goro cracked his other eye open. Ren twitched a little. 

“...And set something on fire.” 

The admission made Goro let out a noise halfway between a snort and a sigh, letting his briefcase finally fall to the floor. To anyone else, he’d have seemed annoyed by the situation: but Ren could see the flicker of amusement in his eyes that said he wasn’t really mad. He resisted the urge to grin with self-satisfaction. 

“I’m just,” Goro continued, vaguely gesturing his hands in the general direction of the kitchen. “Aren’t you supposed to be good at cooking?” 

“Well,” said Ren delicately, sidestepping a towel that had somehow ended up on the floor to stand closer to Goro. “Sometimes, it’s less about the final dish and more about the journey, you feel?” 

Goro looked at him straight in the eye. “You are so full of bullshit.” 

Ren let out a startled laugh, and pressed a quick kiss to the other’s cheek. “Yeah, that’s why you love me.”

That earned him another snort, but Ren could see the slight pinking on Goro’s cheeks: by Goro standards, it was equivalent to blushing tomato red. This time, Ren couldn’t hold back his grin—if anyone had told him years ago that he’d be turning _Goro Akechi_ into a flustered mess with nothing but five words, he’d have called them insane. But the two of them had come a long way since then, and he wouldn’t trade it for the world. 

Anyway. Enough sappiness. 

“We still don’t have anything to eat for dinner,” Ren pointed out, as Goro picked up his briefcase and headed towards their room to presumably get out of his work clothes. 

Goro paused, and turned around to face his boyfriend. “You wanted to cook, right?”

“Well, yeah, but that was meant as a surprise for you…” 

“Oh, don’t worry, coming home to the smoke detector going off was surprising enough,” Goro reassured him, smiling like the asshole he was. “But what better couples bonding activity than cooking together, right?"

His smile was saccharine sweet and betrayed no ill intent, but Ren still peered at Goro suspiciously. He'd had a pretty important meeting at work that day—part of why Ren had wanted to make him a nice dinner. "Aren't you tired?"

"You wash away all my fatigue, darling," answered Goro, and promptly stumbled across his next step. Goddamn iron deficient bastards. 

Ren snorted, not unkindly, and crossed his arms together. His lips pulled up into a smile as he surveyed his boyfriend, and he took a second to appreciate how lucky he was. Goro still wasn’t done talking, though, because he went on to say, “We should make pizza.” 

“ _Pizza?_ ” Ren asked, incredulous. “Coming from the same person who once told me that the only good thing western cuisine had to say for itself is that it looked pretty?” 

“That was _before_ Haruko posted a picture of her making pizza with her boyfriend,” Goro muttered darkly, and suddenly, things were a lot clearer to Ren. Haruko was a long-time rival at work, and Goro being Goro, needed to beat her at everything he could—including everything _outside_ of work, as well. 

Ren grinned. It was so hot when Goro got competitive. “Alright,” he agreed, because he was nothing if not an enabler for his boyfriend’s worst plans. “Go get changed. I’ll get all the stuff ready.”

He was rewarded with a smile for that, and Goro turned back around to head to their room (luckily, without tripping this time). Ren took his own position in front of the refrigerator, sifting through the admittedly meager ingredients they had in stock. He made a mental note to go grocery shopping soon, but until then, he’d have to make do with what he had currently. 

Ren _was_ good at cooking. The thing with the kitchen fire had been a… minor accident, but everyone messed up once in a while, right? And admittedly, he’d never made pizza before, but he had enough trust in his ability to grasp concepts quickly to declare that he’d be able to execute this idea without any flaws whatsoever. 

By the time Goro came back from his shower, changed into fresh clothes and hair still slightly wet from the shower, Ren was standing by the kitchen counter, setting aside cans of crushed tomatoes. 

“What are you up to?” asked Goro, sidling up to his side and standing hip to hip with him. From this angle, Ren could see that his cheeks were tinged with a soft flush that his skin always took on after a shower. The pleasant scent of artificial strawberries filled his nose as Goro peered over his shoulder, and Ren had to strictly remind himself to stay focused on the tomatoes. 

“Plotting your demise,” he replied good-naturedly, holding up the lid from the can he’d just finished cutting open. “Sharp enough.” 

Goro raised an eyebrow, but still took a cautious step away from his boyfriend. “Isn’t that more on brand for me?” 

Ren shrugged evasively, dropping the lid and tilting his head just enough that he could drop a kiss on Goro’s cheek. “Tables turn.”

Snorting, Goro inched back to his original position next to Ren’s side and continued, “Well, what do you want me to do?”

“I was about to start on the sauce,” said Ren, breaking the garlic he’d acquired into its cloves. “You wanna make the dough?”

Goro’s eyes widened slightly, and Ren resisted the urge to laugh. “You sure about that?” he asked, dubiously. “I could just put the toppings on at the end. That’s a very important job.”

“What, scared of a little flour?” Ren teased, knowing it would irritate him. Goro narrowed his eyes, completely falling for his bait. 

“Not at all,” he declared, scowling. “I just offered because I knew that if I made the dough it would be better than anything you’ve ever made and you’d feel—bad.” 

This time, Ren _did_ laugh, if only to see Goro’s scowl deepen further. Setting aside the cloves of garlic he’d just started mincing and wiping his hands on his jeans—yeah, yeah, so it wasn’t proper kitchen etiquette, sue him—he pulled out one of the recipes he’d just searched up on his phone and handed it to Goro. “Here you go, little chef. Wow me.” 

“Oh, you _know_ I will,” he replied, all but snatching the phone out of Ren’s hands. His eyes scanned the recipe page almost hungrily, as if he was going to kill the author and find out all their secrets—and if Ren found that slightly attractive, well. That was entirely on him.

Goro took his bowl and his flour to the opposite counter, where there was more space, and Ren resisted the urge to pout at the sudden loss of body heat being pressed up against him just moments ago. Mournfully, he turned back to his own assignment. It didn’t take long to get the sauce going; he assembled all the ingredients together, adding them in and mixing it up when the vibe was right, so to speak. He didn’t really like recipes. 

By the time Ren had started seasoning the sauce and brought it to a simmer, he felt Goro’s watchful eyes boring a hole into the back of his skull. 

“I know the view’s nice, but if you want something, just yell,” he called out, without turning back. He could almost _hear_ Goro rolling his eyes. 

Still, he moved closer to Ren, hovering somewhere over his shoulder. “This surprisingly smells good.” 

“Tastes even better,” Ren replied, and scooped a little bit of the sauce onto a nearby spoon to prove his point. “Try some.”

He held out the spoon towards Goro, who took his sweet damn time eating what was less than an entire spoonful. He licked the excess off his lips and arranged his features into a sweet smile, saying, “Good job.” 

Bastard. Ren would _not_ let himself get flustered like some stupid teenager by his boyfriend of over two years. Changing the subject, he asked, “How’s the dough coming?” 

Goro made a face, scrunching up his nose in displeasure before looking over his shoulder to get the bowl from where he’d been working. He showed off the cloudy liquid floating at the bottom to Ren, who commented, “Yummy.” 

That earned him a playful pinch to the side, which he of course dramatised into pretending like he’d been shot in the stomach. Goro set the bowl back down on the counter. 

“I’m following the instructions,” he argued, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms over his chest. “This has to sit for another minute before I can add the flour and everything else.”

“Do you want some help while this simmers?” Ren offered, ever-so-faithfully playing the role of the perfect boyfriend as he put the lid over the pan he’d been stirring continuously. Goro was not impressed. 

“I can handle it.” 

The underlying edge in his voice made Ren turn around to face him, only to be met with a grin. He mirrored the expression, silently thanking his stars that he’d managed to find someone as stupidly competitive as him for all the smallest things. 

“Suddenly so confident, huh?” Ren teased, watching as Goro’s grin only grew wider with the words. 

“When I have all the reasons to be, why not?”

Ren laughed as Goro returned to his original position in front of his dough bowl, grabbing the olive oil as he did so. This time, it was Ren’s turn to lean against the counter and watch his boyfriend cook, even as his gaze dipped to a decidedly below the sweater vest area—nope, this was not the appropriate train of thought for a kitchen. 

Goro, meanwhile, started mixing the flour into his conconction. “We should try making something more difficult next time,” he suggested, eyes still trained on the bowl.

“Maybe,” Ren agreed, _his_ eyes still trained appreciatively on Goro. “Or maybe I could just watch you make it.”

To his credit, Goro didn’t even twitch at the suggestiveness in his voice—either Ren wasn’t as smooth as he thought, or Goro was just used to his antics by now. Probably the latter, judging by the way he casually glanced over his shoulder to say, “The view’s nice, isn’t it?” 

Ren laughed. “You have no idea.” 

“Alright, I think this is done.” Goro declared after a few more minutes of kneading. He turned around with the bowl in his hands, flour covering his hands and a little bit of his clothes, eyes lit up in an innocently proud way that Ren hadn’t seen in a while. 

“It looks good,” Ren said truthfully, and leaned over to press another kiss on Goro’s cheek, causing the other’s smile to be directed towards him and not the bowl of dough. For all their banter, sometimes the two of them just needed a little honest affection with each other. “The sauce will be ready soon, too,” he added, and gently took the bowl from Goro’s hands to place it back on the counter. 

“What toppings do we have?” Goro asked, wandering over to where Ren was currently peering into the fridge. Ren spun around to face Goro with a wicked grin on his face and an even more wicked object behind his back: pineapples. 

See, Ren wasn’t a picky person by nature. He was normally fine with whatever was dealt his way, in the sense that he didn’t have any specific likes or dislikes when it came to food, and that included pizza toppings. He _was_ , however, an antagonistic person who knew all of _Goro’s_ likes and dislikes—and despite the other boy's affection for sweet things, he held a furious hatred for pineapples deep inside his heart. Ren didn’t know if he was being serious about it or just overexaggerating it most of the time, but it was funny all the same: hence the box of pineapple slices he always kept stocked in the fridge.

“Your favourite, of course,” Ren said, eyes twinkling with delight as he presented the pineapples to his boyfriend. The brief flash of murderous spite that flashed in Goro’s eyes would be a moment that he would treasure for years to come. 

“You’re deranged,” Goro informed him, lightly pushing him out of the way to peer into the refrigerator himself. Ren watched, amused, as his eyes raked the shelves for the one thing he always chose when picking toppings— _bell peppers_ , of all things. 

As previously mentioned, Ren didn’t have any particular animosity towards bell peppers. Also as previously mentioned, Ren was a little shit. Which was why he immediately made a prolonged _ew_ sound that lasted several seconds before following it up with, “Nerd.” 

“How does liking _bell peppers_ —” he held up the specified vegetable to prove his point “—make me a _nerd_?” Goro sounded exasperated, but it was laced with amusement; almost as if he was waiting to see what else Ren could come up with.

Ren shrugged. “Just does.” 

“Don’t knock it until you try it,” Goro huffed, stepping forward to poke him in the chest. Ren grabbed his hand before he could pull it away, smirking before saying, “No, I don’t think I will.” 

He could see the smile playing on Goro’s face as he moved closer and drew himself up to get in Ren’s face. He was trying to stare him down, and Ren tried not to back down—in the end, he couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. Goro huffed again, affronted, but his gaze had softened a little. It was so ridiculous, arguing over whose taste in pizza toppings was more superior, but it was the kind of simple happiness that neither of them had thought they would ever experience. Spurred by the moment and his own emotions, Ren leaned forward just a little to press a soft kiss to his boyfriend’s mouth. 

Goro wrinkled his nose and mumbled “cheater,” against his lips, and Ren’s heart grew triple its size from where it sat it in his ribcage. 

After a moment, he pulled away, distracted by the sound of the sauce threatening to bubble over. Nodding in the direction of the stove, Ren said, “That should be almost done. Dough time?”

“Dough time,” Goro affirmed, and extracted himself from the other’s arms. “Are we doing one pizza or two little ones?” he asked, as Ren busied himself looking for the rolling pin in one of the drawers. He knew it was there _some_ where—sue him for not being the most organised of people. 

“Go big or go home,” Ren replied, by way of an answer, and set the rolling pin down on the counter next to the bowl of dough, pairing it with a big grin aimed at his boyfriend. Goro only rolled his eyes in response, and flicked a little bit of flour in Ren’s direction in retaliation for his comment. Harsh. 

Goro set to work on patting down the counter with flour without waiting any longer, and Ren took the opportunity to get out a big pan that would probably do the job of making a pizza well enough. After switching off the stove and turning the oven on to preheat—and feeling immensely proud of himself as he did so, like a real chef—he turned back around to where Goro was still working the dough. 

It didn’t take long for the two of them to fall into a steady rhythm side by side, rolling down the dough and stretching it into the best circle they could come up with. Ren wanted to try doing one of the fancy air flipping techniques that he’d seen Italian chefs do on TV, but Goro had kindly reminded him of the state of his motor skills—or rather, the lack thereof. Ren pouted, bumping his hip against Goro’s until they were engaged in a _who can knock down the other first_ fight. There was no winner, because Goro was a sore loser and a cheater who held onto the counter to avoid falling (at least, that was what Ren maintained). 

By the time they were done folding in the crust of the pizza, Ren clapped his hands to clear the flour collected on them in a cloud of dust. He retrieved the sauce from where it was resting on the stove, removing the lid and inhaling the spices that were currently drifting out of the pan—he’d outdone himself. Sojiro would have been proud. 

He caught Goro raising an eyebrow at him as Ren snuck a quick bite of the sauce, unable to stop himself. “Save some for the pizza.” 

Wicked grin back in place on his face, Ren shook his head and only reached out to take another spoonful of his own creation. Goro reached out for the pan, but he only moved it farther out of reach. Slowly and deliberately, eyes trained on his boyfriend the whole time, he dipped the spoon back into the sauce and took another bite. 

Goro pursed his lips. In a matter of seconds, he stuck his hand in the leftover flour left on the counter and wiped it down Ren’s arm—immediately prompting him to yelp in surprise and almost drop the pan. Had it not been for his dastardly quick reflexes (even if he did say so himself) the sauce would have been long gone. 

Setting the pan back on the counter and glaring at Goro, he promised, “I’ll get you back.”

“Sure you will,” Goro replied easily, giving him a sweet smile. Bastard, exhibit B. “But for now, I’m _hungry._ ” 

Ren grunted in vague agreement and nodded towards the dough lying sadly on the counter. Goro helped him get it into the pan without tearing it apart, which was a trying feat, considering that neither of them had ever done anything like it before—but of course, they managed. What had Ren said about being sure that he’d be able to execute the idea without any flaws whatsoever? 

“Toppings,” Ren said next, and Goro nodded wordlessly as he brought over the ingredients that they’d set aside on the counter. Aside from the offending bell peppers and pineapples, there were also mushrooms and slices of ham that Ren had decided to use as makeshift toppings—unfortunately, Goro didn’t hold any animosity towards either of those items. Truly tragic. 

They both topped their own half, or at least they were supposed to—Ren tried to sneak some pineapple onto Goro’s side, only to be interrupted by a sharp nudge from the other’s elbow. 

“Stay in your lane, Amamiya,” he said, fake-scowling as he picked out the pineapples and dropped them onto Ren’s side of the pizza. 

“This _is_ my lane,” Ren argued, even as he continued shifting pineapples onto what was clearly not his lane. Goro sighed with exasperation, not for the first time that day—but before he could do anything else, the oven beeped. 

Giving him a pointed look, Goro shifted the pineapples back into Ren’s space and grabbed the pan to take to the oven. Ren watched with an amused smirk as Goro spent a few minutes figuring out how to set the timer, absent-mindedly collecting all the flour on the counter in his hands. 

When his boyfriend finally turned back around to face him, Ren took the opportunity to finally act out his perfect revenge plan. 

He blew the flour straight into Goro’s face, barely giving the other any time to react before he was covered from head to toe. Goro spluttered and coughed, a cloud of dust flying through the air between them as Ren just laughed gleefully. 

His laughter distracted him for too long, though, because Ren didn’t notice Goro grabbing the remainder of the flour into his own hands. A sly grin spread across Goro’s face as he cornered Ren against the counter, caging him with one arm and spreading flour across his face with the other.

They were both laughing by then, pressed up against each other with flour getting all across their hair and their clothes—but even Goro, who was normally an extreme clean freak, didn’t mind the mess. Ren’s eyes softened as he took in the sight of his boyfriend in front of him, all creased and warm and _real_. The current lack of distance made him lean in for a kiss, because he was a walking cliche. 

Goro’s lips were warm as he pressed in, slow and sweet, as if they’d got all the time in the world. Ren skimmed his hands down Goro’s sides—receiving a particularly gratifying shiver in response—and let them fall naturally to the side of his waist. They stood like that for a few more moments, moving gently, and it was finally Goro who broke away for breath, leaving Ren to blink up at him. 

In their relationship, Ren was usually always the one who was compared to a cat, what with his constant state of laziness and also bedhead. Here, though, with Goro’s eyes all crinkled up and his mouth resting in a hazy smile, Ren thought that he looked more like a cat than anyone else. 

He was still in Goro’s arms, oven humming pleasantly in the background. It would take some more time before their pizza was ready, so Ren took advantage of that to bury his face into the crook of Goro’s neck. It was as warm as the rest of him, and Ren had never felt more content than in that moment. 

“We’re going to blow Haruko out of the water,” he mumbled, words blurring themselves against the other’s t-shirt. 

Ren could feel Goro blink; his eyelashes dipped to the top of his head before moving back up again in confusion. “I completely forgot about her.”

“Well, we can still show off either way, right?” 

Goro laughed, and Ren felt it reverberate through his entire body. “Right.”

Ren smiled into Goro’s collarbones, and let himself bask in the quiet for a few more seconds. While neither of them were particularly _loud_ people, their constant need for conversation often left them in search of more silent places. Right here, like this, Ren couldn’t say he quite minded the tranquility. 

“Oh, by the way, I got flour all over your hair.” 

**Author's Note:**

> they ate the pizza. it was terrible. would they do it again? in a heartbeat
> 
> come find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/knifesbians)!! i need to talk about akeshu every 5 minutes or i turn into a dried up sack of nothing


End file.
